Dear Colleauges

It is our great pleasure, as President and Secretary of the World Heart Failure Society (WHFS), to welcome you to the second International Congress of the WHFS, to be held at Chandigarh, India, February 5th – 7th, 2010.

Heart failure should no longer be considered a specific problem of developed countries, but, rather, a global disease requiring a global response. In nearly all regions of the world is heart failure on the rise.

In order to contain such an epidemic, it is important to establish the prevalence and specific causes of heart failure in different regions worldwide. And identify regional preventive measures and therapeutic regimens. Stimulant of local research activities in the area of heart failure and specific educational programmes for patient and heart care providers are some of the examples to reach this goal.

Such initiatives require an organization entirely and exclusively operating in the field of the heart failure. For this purpose, the WHFS was initiated in 2004 with a focus on developing countries. Its aims are to fulfill the goals set out above by creating an organization of doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, health care authorities and other with an interest in and knowledge of heart failure and its regional implications.

Amongst the initiatives of the WHFS is its educational programme, which includes its annual international congress. This first World Heart Failure 2008 was held in the UAE in 2008, and was a great success.

We are excited by the opportunity to continue this initiative on an annual basis with the organization of WHFS 2010, the second international congress of the WHFS.

For this, we are much indebted to the Heart Failure Society, India for their invaluable help and support. The programme reflects the mission of the Society by providing abroad, but in depth presentation of current issues in heart failure which are or soon will be relevant in developing countries.

We look forward to seeing you in Chandigarh.

Willem J. Remme. MD, PhD                                      Inder S. Anand, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine                                             Professor of Medicine
President World Heart Failure Society                   Secretary World Heart Failure Society